A fraction of the control I thought I had
Writing, for me, is control. And Silco is the reason I learned that. Itās funny, I used to think I was writing about him. But maybe he is writing me.
And even though I can hardly believe Iām saying this, itās true and surprisingly, it doesnāt hurt.
The thought should scare me. It doesnāt.
In the world I create, I am a god.
And oh God, Iām turning into Paintress... yeah, lame joke.
But thereās not a shred of falsehood in it. I am the one who breathes life into empty pages. I shape space, command time, and bend emotions to my will. Even when I donāt know the ending, it will still be mine.
I surprise readers, unsettle them, make them cry⦠and yes, maybe Iām a little too proud of that.
But thatās not the point. The point is simple: in my world, I am both master and maker. The flow of events, every word, every breath of my charactersāall of it depends on me. Even when I joke that the characters āspeak through me,ā itās still my voice theyāre using.
This power both fascinates and terrifies me.
Because through the act of writing, I control not just the storyāI control myself.
I untie knots, weave new threads, and hand them over to others to play with.
Maybe thatās my way of surviving chaos.
Maybe control isnāt a cage, but a language.
I donāt know if itās a problem. I donāt know if I should fight it.
I donāt have a solutionāthe answers are still writing themselves.
When I realized how much control writing gives me, my thoughts went deeperāto the catalyst. The one thing, the one person, everything circles back to.
I wouldnāt even be here if it werenāt for one character. Itās both fascinating and unsettling how everything seems to lead back to him.
Silco isnāt just an obsession because heās a character. Heās the archetype of controlācold, unyielding, keeping even chaos in check. When I write about him, Iām really writing about something I canāt hold in my own hands.
I want to hold chaos too, especially the chaos inside my head. Writing about him showed me paths, maps, whole constellations I didnāt know existed. It gave me wings.
I tried to branch out: fantasy, crime, romance. I really did. But it felt like banging my head against a wall until my teeth rattled.
And then he appeared. He reached out his hand and offered me a place. The stories never stopped coming ā not just stories, but worlds.
I know: fandom, people, passion, funāI understand all that. But Iām not exaggerating when I say that Silco opened a door to something greater. Through him, I found my way back to writing. I grew, I created, I learned to control myself through him. He, my catalystāmy beginningāis still my path.
Do I sound obsessive? I donāt care. I really donāt give a damn. Thatās what passion looks like.
Through him, the world opened up to me. I met people. For the first time, I felt a sense of controlānot only over the worlds I create, but over myself.
And yet, even within fandom, control is an illusion. The more I try to protect whatās mine, the more I become confined by it.
Is it freedomāor are these shackles? Whoās really in control?
I love writing. I love writing about Silco. I feel like I should. Creating stories set in Arcaneās world has lifted me higher somehow. Iāve become āthe one who writes about Silco.ā
Mercy, people even ask me to write things for them. Iāve never been happier than I am here. I know my place. Iāve settled into it. For once, I belong to something larger than myself.
I drifted from reading on paper and found my way into the world of fanfiction.
For a while, it helped. It filled the holeāthe emptiness my paper worlds had left behindāreplaced by the glow of a screen.
I read stories about characters I already knew, wondering how anyone could be so brilliant as to come up with such an idea.
I loved it until I found myself on the other side.
I started writing. I havenāt had this much fun in a long timeāwriting crimes, making plans, searching for words.
I felt like I'm finally doing what my heart had been crying out for. No amount of text could fill that void, so I decided to fill it myself.
But when I started writing, I stopped reading, even fics.
At first, I was searching for my own style. I sifted through ink, hoping my old passion would open its arms to me again, even though I had abandoned it for no real reason.
I knew that reading would make me absorb someone elseās style, and I didnāt want that.
I came back to reading because I realized I was lost.
I was filled with irrational jealousy toward the place in the world that I had to earn for myself.
I didnāt see it thenāand I regret not opening my eyes sooner.
I needed inspiration and found it in stories of one of my favorite authors. And for the first time in a long while, I was able to simply enjoy a textāto fully appreciate another authorās work without the absurd need to compete.
,This helped me understand that I wonāt become good without practice. That the mindset of āeither do something perfectly the first time or donāt do it at allā is wrong, even unhealthy.
I canāt give more of myself if Iām empty, right?
But that author is one of the few I can still read. I look forward to her stories, knowing theyāll be amazing. Maybe itās because I know her? Iām not sure.
Yet the problem with reading remains.
Iāve noticed that I canāt return to it as a reader. I return as an author.
So instead of searching, I started thinking. Digging into my own head, pulling out threads, looking for the knot that ties everything together. I donāt know how else to do it.
Once again, I dragged out something that Silco himself might be proud ofāa fragment of control wrapped in obsession. But the question of control keeps echoing. Because no matter what I do, he still holds power over me.
I stay with him because he brought me peopleāreaders, friends, a space where I exist. I thought Iād caught the wind in my wings, but I see now that Iām still tethered.
And I did it to myself. No oneās forcing me to stayāitās as if I handed the fandom the reins willingly. So now the question isnāt just about control over my writingāitās about control over myself.
Maybe Iām clinging to what gave me control because Iām afraid that if I let go, Iāll never find my way back.
Maybe writing isnāt control at allābut an attempt to reconstruct it. Maybe itās not me who controls the text, but the text that controls me.
Answers are nowhere to be found.










